2019 NFL Offseason Extravaganza

The best part is Legion's doing it to himself. We don't even have to throw the jabs. This is what happens when you've been Borked for a half a decade.

You all can't hurt me if I hurt myself first!

Panthers sign Bruce Irvin. I guess that's good.

I thought Irvin was a linebacker, but the word is that he's going to take Peppers' place at DE. Carolina has run a 4-3 since forever, but there have been rumblings they might go to a 3-4 this season. I guess Irvin is athletic enough to rush the passer and not get run over by Alvin Kamara / Devonta Freeman / whoever the Bucs have? Dunno.

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Cowboys sign Randle Cobb.

Also brought in Eric Berry for a visit, but Berry intends to make other destination visits.

Enix wrote:

Panthers sign Bruce Irvin. I guess that's good.

I thought Irvin was a linebacker, but the word is that he's going to take Peppers' place at DE.

Irvin is an edge rusher. He played Sam LB in Seattle, whose 4-3 Under front brings the Sam 'backer up almost to the line of scrimmage like an end:

IMAGE(https://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1104946/4-3_Under.png)

IMAGE(http://cdn.insidethepylon.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Seahawks-4-3-Under.jpg)

That actually is Irvin in the second picture. These fronts are aggressive and put a lot of pressure on the two linebackers who play off the line (which is why someone like Bobby Wagner makes money in Seattle) and also you can see why a thumping strong safety is important for this defense (which is why someone like Kam Chancellor makes money in Seattle).

The Raiders ran a 3-4 which would shift into a 4-3 Under look similar to Seattle's, bringing Irvin up to the line:

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The Panthers are a more traditional 4-3, Cover 2 team, and have been for a long time. I would expect him to play defensive end in that alignment, though he will be on the smaller side for the spot.

IMAGE(https://cdn1.sbnation.com/imported_assets/1718033/yq4SR4X_medium.png)

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I think Irvin is a decent bargain free agent. I wanted the Niners to claim him off waivers when he was cut last year, even though doing so would have meant eating a contract that was above his actual value. They didn't, but they did pursue him after he cleared waivers to try and sign him to a more reasonable contract, but he went with Atlanta instead. Still got 6.5 sacks last year split between two teams.

The Cardinals did not attend Kyler Murray's Pro Day last week.

Instead, their head coach and GM are having a private meeting day with Murray today in Oklahoma.

So, let's respond to a comment made a page ago:

whispa wrote:

So help me out here. Why is there talk about Rosen leaving Arizona, a year after they invested a number 1 pick on him?

New coach Kliff Kingsbury built his reputation on his offensive system, and making QBs successful in that system. The QBs he coached that went on to the NFL: Case Keenum, Johnny Manziel, Davis Webb, Baker Mayfield, Patrick Mahomes.

One thing that all of these QBs have in common: they are more mobile than Josh Rosen, and Kingsbury used that mobility in his system. None of them are Lamar Jackson, but all of them had the footspeed to be used heavily on designed rollouts, bootlegs, etc.

Rosen is not really that guy. His combine 40 time of 4.92 puts him in the Kirk Cousins, Matt Ryan class. Not quite the 5.0+ class of Philip Rivers, Nick Foles, and now Dwayne Haskins, but not as fleet as the high-4.6-to-low-4.8 class as the names on Kingsbury's QB tree.

Now the 40 only measures straight-line speed, but more generally, those other names are more quick, twitchy athletes (as far as QBs go) while Rosen is a more deliberate, pocket passer type.

Kyler Murray is much more like those other Kingsbury QBs, but amped up. Murray is faster than all of those other Kingsbury QBs, and only Mahomes can match him in arm strength. Murray is just below Lamar Jackson fast. Outside of height, his athletics are about as high as they come for a QB, and Kingsbury's offense absolutely has the concepts to put that athleticism to work. And as for height, well, look at the names on Kingsbury's list and it's a who's-who of some of the shorter recent QB prospects: Keenum, Manziel, Mayfield. It'd be little surprise to find Kingsbury worrying less about it than the average NFL coach.

I think highly of Josh Rosen, and the Cardinals torpedoing his rookie year with terrible protection and a dysfunctional offense (that resulted in Byron Leftwich taking over as OC midseason, though obviously without enough time to install anything significantly different) has done little to make me think he's a bust.

But I can easily, easily see how Kingsbury and the Cardinals could decide to draft Kyler Murray, and in fact, I think I'd probably put the odds at 60/40 that it happens. (And if I'm the New York Giants, I take that 3rd round pick that I got in the OBJ trade and use it as the starting point for trade talks with Arizona after they do pull the trigger on Murray.)

Yeah, Rosen to the Giants makes too much damn sense. They're already used to a pocket passer worth a penchant for INTs!

*Legion* wrote:

I've got a YouTube channel to recommend to you all: The QB School.

One thing I forgot to mention about this channel: in about a half-dozen or so videos, I have twice heard J.T. use "Tebow" as a verb for a quarterback throwing a ball that bounces before it reaches the intended receiver.

This guy speaks my language.

*Legion* wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

I've got a YouTube channel to recommend to you all: The QB School.

One thing I forgot to mention about this channel: in about a half-dozen or so videos, I have twice heard J.T. use "Tebow" as a verb for a quarterback throwing a ball that bounces before it reaches the intended receiver.

This guy speaks my language.

I caught that with his latest video about Trubiskys int at the pro bowl and approved.

*Legion* wrote:

That actually is Irvin in the second picture. These fronts are aggressive and put a lot of pressure on the two linebackers who play off the line (which is why someone like Bobby Wagner makes money in Seattle) and also you can see why a thumping strong safety is important for this defense (which is why someone like Kam Chancellor makes money in Seattle).

OK, that makes sense. (And thanks for the bonus D formation study!) Carolina had a lot of problems rushing the QB last year, and facing Brees and Ryan in a quarter of your games exacerbates that shortcomings.

Luuuuuuke Kuechly and Shaq Thompson are plenty fast enough at LB, and Eric Reid is better against the run than in coverage.

Ron Rivera was coaching the D by season's end, and it looked better late, especially in that home game against the Saints late. Maybe he's got a few things cooking?

Either that, or Carolina has always liked bringing in older (and cheap) vets for a season or two. As long as Irvin is a good locker room guy (and it looks like he is) he'll be OK.

Because it seems like most of the Cowboys are contractually obligated to get in trouble at some point, Tyrone Crawford pushed some police officers in a bar last week.

https://www.bloggingtheboys.com/2019...

A tweet along the lines of some of the numbers I posted earlier, along with a typo that improves his name considerably:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/M4dzV3F.jpg)

Josen Rosen the Chosen.

Josen Rosen can't be unseen!

Gronk retires. Gronk make movies now?

I'm looking forward to him winning the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal in a few weeks.

In what for fans of other AFC East teams must be extremely nausea inducing irony, the court order that authorized the surveillance that caught Robert Kraft soliciting sex slaves did not expressly allow video recording. He could walk...because of Spygate 2.0.

Also, Jordy Nelson retires. If he can speak complete sentences, I imagine he'll be courted for a booth job.

Rat Boy wrote:

Also, Jordy Nelson retires. If he can speak complete sentences, I imagine he'll be courted for a booth job.

The best Internet comment of the day comes from Reddit in reaction to this story:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/Ub83UEO.jpg)

Past history with the current issue of insurance being harder and harder to get would have probably clued people in that alternative football leagues are a bad idea. We have one that sorta works and has for years so we really don't need this or the upcoming XFL 2.0 bad idea.

2019 is almost always a hellworld, but then sometimes, you get former NFL coaches tweeting things like this:

IMAGE(https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--xw-csPcm--/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/xkoszowlnivikoxe7dyy.png)

Tampa Bay signed Blaine Gabbert.

Someone get Milkman back in here, I demand the satisfaction of this moment.

Schiano news! It's a big Milkman story day.

IMAGE(https://media.giphy.com/media/VbvjcQp6cYYYE/giphy.gif)

(Sorry for using a Spacey gif.)

Jordan Howard traded to Eagles.

*Legion* wrote:

Tampa Bay signed Blaine Gabbert.

Someone get Milkman back in here, I demand the satisfaction of this moment.

I was like, "well who the hell is gonna be the back-up for my titans"?

This just in, we signed Ryan Tannehill (like two weeks ago).

Between Tannehill and Mariota, they figure they'll have enough functioning body parts to construct one healthy QB.

*Legion* wrote:

Tampa Bay signed Blaine Gabbert.

Someone get Milkman back in here, I demand the satisfaction of this moment.

Heh... as soon as I saw the news, I thought first of MMD and second of this thread, figuring correctly that *Legion* would be amused.

Out of 221 defenders who met the minimum pass rush snap threshold, Ogbah ranked 193rd in pass rush productivity. He had 464 pass rush snaps (21st in the league) and had only 31 pressures, and only 3 of those that he converted into sacks. No one else of the 23 players with 450+ pass rush snaps had fewer than 7 sacks, and only 6 of the 23 had fewer than 10.

When you crank the threshold up to only include every-down type of pass rushers, Ogbah ranks dead last by a healthy margin. He was quite simply the worst every-down pass rusher in the NFL in 2018.

Not that I would have sent Kevin Zeitler away, but you can see why they traded for Olivier Vernon.